Message #55767

[barlow]

LACK OF IMPROVEMENT. HaHa.

It just depends. Sometimes it's just the fact that I know I only wanna keep one and I keep weedin thru em til I choose what I think is the best. There's always gonna be one that's the best.

Track speed or that ability to go from grubbing out a tough track to picking the head up and shifting into high gear has been a factor a few times. It seems to come as a learned trait in this line of dogs. At young ages they make determined track dogs and will take the first one they come to and try to work it out even if the track is beyond their skill or experience level. And at that stage they can tend to babble a bit on track. Both of these things improve with hunting. They learn to solve problems and make guesses about trailing and they learn that once the trail starts to heat up they no longer have to stick their head in it. They also start to open less and less til you can tell pretty clearly what they are doing based on how they open. I have a young gyp now that is almost silent or sometimes is silent til she locates and begins to bay.

Late starters. I always figured that late starters more often produce late starters so I don't want to go down that road and end up keeping dogs for two years to see what they'll do. Some argue that late starters may make the best finishers but I just don't have the patience.

Timid. Have given up on a few because they were man shy or because of a similar trait that runs in these dogs. Isn't the same as being shy but they are a little overly sensitive and can not take a scolding and certainly not an ass whipping.

Lack of desire. Have seen dogs that will climb in a bear's pocket and fight for all their worth, but when he breaks and leaves out they come back to the truck. To me that is just a lack of desire and a fatal flaw. Lack of desire manifests itself in plenty of other ways in other lines but this has been my experience twice now within this family. I will not tolerate a quitter.

Size or conformation concerns. This may sound stupid to some folks but going back on one side of this family of dogs there are some size issues. I can trace it back for you to about 1930 in my pedigrees. If it goes unchecked you'll end up with 25 and 30 pound dogs and that is too small for me. I had a nice young gyp that was about 28 pounds and I bred her to a right-sized male and only kept right sized pups and am being careful and culling for size with that side of the family til I know I have it under control. If you look you'll find that nothing happens without a reason. The dogs behind this size issue in my dogs pass on a hereditary thyroid problem. The Thyroid affects growth. Can also lead to early onset sterility. So, in a sense I'm not culling for size . . I'm culling for a hereditary thyroid condition when it manifests itself as a size problem.

But on the other hand I've raised dogs that others might have culled just because I had a good feeling about them. I don't think you can take the human condition out of your breeding program no matter how hard you try. We are all susceptible to liking a pup based on some silly thing it did as a 4 week old baby or because he looks like old so and so . . and we'll keep giving them special treatment or extra opportunities. That's the difference between our culling and that of Mother Nature. She don't give a damn about cute or sentimental. You'll never see a retarded or deformed deer who lives to breed in the wild just because his great grand dad had a 20 point rack.